The Kid Stuff Podcast

The Kid Stuff Podcast features Conversations with people who make stuff for kids. TV writers, musicians, authors, programmers, scientists... anyone who works with a young audience could pop up next to speak with host Mike Bradecich.

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Aaron Goldblatt runs Metcalfe Architecture and Design in Philadelphia with his partner Alan Metcalfe. They design a lot of public spaces, and spaces for kids, including health care spaces and informal education spaces like museums and botanic gardens.

Alan’s background is in architecture, but Aaron’s is in museum design and art (he was a sculptor, ceramicist, and welder for years before getting into museums).

As an actor, it’s funny to hear their philosophies about their work. Alan Metcalfe talks a lot on their website about empathy, and creating empathetic spaces. Alan, on the other hand, is obsessed with the idea of play, and he incorporates it into his working process wherever he can. For him, that seems to mean approaching work with a sense of fearlessness, and also trying to find a place of flow, of letting the play take over and your getting your brain out of the way.

Of course, those are two of the most important elements of acting; putting yourself in the shoes of your character (empathy), and playing. I mean, when we get on stage, that’s what we call the thing. A “play.” We’re playing make-believe.

It was nice to hear that, even in fields as disparate as architecture & design and acting may seem, the goals are still to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and to have a little fun.

You can check out their incredible body of work on their website. Take a look at some of their work, some of it may even be close enough to where you live for you to check out in person. They have worked on projects all over the country and the world.